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UNC Grad Making Noise In Local Music Scene

CHAPEL HILL – Musician, entrepreneur and UNC alum Catie King has forged music and business together in a way that serves the community. King’s venture, Resound Magazine, is the final feature of our LaUNCh Chapel Hill summer series.

When King isn’t working on her music, the Raleigh Native is busy in LaUNCh growing Resound Magazine, a national network of locally focused digital music magazines run entirely by student journalists.

“The way I like to put it is the local music scene here, and it seems in other localities, is that it is over-fragmented and under-served. Resound serves as the connective tissue between all of the parties participating in local music to create a dynamic, to create a dialogue, external and internal,” King said.

King said the Chapel Hill/Carrboro area has a flourishing music scene, but as an emerging artist, she had a hard time finding outlets to share her music.

“I thought about how it took a year and half to get my album reviewed by the Daily Tar Heel, and that seems a little ridiculous. And I still haven’t gotten a single play on XYZ [WXYC] which is a frustration shared by most UNC student [musicians]. Also with my experience of trying to find other musicians and other venues to play in, finally giving you the time of day so you can book a show. I was sitting back and trying to figure out why it took so long,” King said.

King wrote on the magazine’s web site that “every city has a soundtrack. It’s our job to play it.” The magazine features traditional media coverage of the local music community, including news, reviews, and interviews in addition to multimedia and social content. King said she is launching the next branch of Resound Magazine at the College of Charleston and plans to add more colleges across the country in the coming months. She said she has a particular interest in colleges with music business programs.

Photo Courtesy Catie King

Photo Courtesy Catie King

Photo Courtesy Catie King

Photo Courtesy Catie King

Photo Courtesy Catie King

Photo Courtesy Catie King

Photo Courtesy Catie King

Photo Courtesy Catie King

The passion for music has always been there, King said, but she laughed about her road to becoming an entrepreneur, saying she stumbled “face first” into it. King, who graduated from UNC in May with a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and a minor in etrepenuership, took a course a couple of years ago called “Launching the Venture.” The class was taught by Ted Zoller, who oversees LaUNCh and serves as the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at UNC Kenan-Flagler.

“Without that course, I have no idea what I would be doing right now. It has connected me with dozens of important local entrepreneurs and experts. I have the materials and the know-how to be able to execute on the idea. I didn’t have that a year ago,” King said.

King launched Resound in April of 2012, and when the opportunity to be a part of LaUNCh Chapel Hill came about this past spring, she knew it would lead to great opportunities for growing her venture.

“I think the best part about, especially being around such young minds, is it gives you a sense of possibility that you don’t have otherwise,” King said. “You feel unhinged and able to dream past your original vision. I try to get in here as early as I can everyday to try to convince myself that I have a real job and everyone keeps asking me, ‘When are you going to get a real job?’ And I hope that’s the question for decades to come.”

If her world weren’t already busy enough, she released her third album, Suspended EP, in May. This month King returned from a trip to Los Angeles, California, where she met with a record executive in the music industry and also explored opportunities to expand Resound.

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